Monster Hunter is one of the biggest gaming franchises in Japan. But much like Dragon Quest, its popularity has never reached similar levels overseas.

Capcom hopes that it will begin to change the situation with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. On Wii U, users will be able to play with others online. The Wii U and 3DS versions feature save transfers. And in Europe, a Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate bundles will be released.

According to Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, these were all steps taken to enhance the series’ appeal in the west:

“You’re right in terms of us intentionally doing this. It’s always been our wish to make a good start and we’ve always been saying we’ll do this at one point. Monster Hunter in Japan started and developed in a very different way to how it’s been in Europe so far, Japan being a rather densely populated place with a quite prominent culture of visiting each other’s places to play games together. You see kids carrying their consoles taking them to their friends. They already had this basis of playing games through local network, whereas it’s a bit more difficult in the US and Europe where your neighbour is seven miles away. With Wii U, which is online compatible, and with 3DS with its portability, releasing both of them together, we’re giving opportunity and options to consumers to really pick up the version they want and the one that suits them. By doing that we might be able to actually have a breakthrough. That’s definitely our intention.”

The Conduit HD confirmed for NVIDIA Tegra devices

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 1 Comment

As originally expected, The Conduit is heading to Tegra-supported devices – including the upcoming Shield handheld.

The Conduit HD will be pretty much like the original Wii game, though it will sport prettier visuals. Players will be able to take on the first two missions for free and will need to offer up $7 for the remaining seven. There will also be an option to purchase levels 3-6 for $3 and levels 7-9 for the same amount.

It’ll definitely be strange seeing The Conduit on new hardware, but I guess High Voltage Software figured this would be a smart thing to do.

Source, Via

Renegade Kid working on “Treasurenauts”

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

A new trademark coming from Renegade Kid has been discovered in the USPTO. Siliconera detected the name “Treasurenauts”, which was filed by the Mutant Mudds developer.

As it turns out, Treasurenauts is one of Renegade Kid’s next games. The studio has confirmed that it will be making an announcement in the near future.

Source

Pwnee Studios says they’ve had few issues working with Wii U development, Nintendo has been very helpful

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Developer of the upcoming Cloudberry Kingdom on Wii U “Pwnee Studios” told Aussie Gamer the other day that Nintendo has been great to work with relating to the development and publishing of their game on the Wii U eShop, and they were “pumped” when they got the chance to bring the game to Nintendo fans.

Nintendo has been great to work with so far! We were raised playing the NES and SNES, so when we got the chance to develop our game for the Wii U, we were pumped! We really haven’t had many issues with Nintendo, and they have been very helpful whenever we have had a problem.

In terms of getting the game onto the eShop, it has gone pretty smoothly. We presented the game to Nintendo, they liked it, and they said we should go onto the eShop. All we had to do was agree!

– Pwnee Studios’ TJ Lutz

One of the more interesting bits of information to come from this is how simple it was to get Nintendo to let them publish the game on the eShop! They simply show off their game (probably to some Nintendo representatives), and the Big N makes the decision themselves based on how cool the game is. I find that to be quite a refreshingly simple way to get a game put out!

Via Nintendo Life

All of EA’s future games will utilize micro-transactions of some kind

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

After we heard that Dead Space 3 would give players the ability to pay a few extra bucks for upgrades to weapons, items, and armor in-game, a lot of people were concerned: If EA was bringing this trendy business practice into a truly core franchise like Dead Space, what would games like Madden and The Sims look like in the future? According to the mega-publisher, they’ll look awfully similar:

“The next and much bigger piece [of the business] is microtransactions within games. We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.”

– EA CFO Blake Jorgensen

I can’t imagine too many gamers are happy about this, but if history is any indication, these things will pass. Such things are trendy now– like social networking interaction– but they don’t represent the core of what the fun of games is about, and they can be ignored. Only when EA starts forcing you to participate in the micro transaction model should you be worried!

Via NowGamer

Pauline Jacquey becomes Ubisoft Reflections managing director, studio working on new projects

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Ubisoft Reflections is best known for its work on the Driver games. It is also assisting Ubisoft Montreal with Watch Dogs. Aside from the upcoming open-world title, Reflections is developing a number of unannounced projects.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft hasn’t specified what these games actually are. The news was shared as part of an announcement confirming Pauline Jacquey as the subsidiary’s new managing director.

Source

Capcom’s PAX East lineup includes two unannounced games

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

Capcom will be announcing two games at PAX East next month. The company plans to reveal both projects during the “World of Capcom” Panel.

A description of the event reads:

“Moderator Francis Mao (CAPCOM) leads a panel of Capcom’s producers and product managers to share the latest details on all the upcoming Capcom games such as Remember Me, Lost Planet 3, Resident Evil: Revelations, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, two NEW product announcements, and more! Up to 1,000 fans will walk away with a free gift, so this is a panel you definitely do not want to miss!”

Capcom will host its panel on March 22 at 12 PM ET. As far as the expo itself is concerned, this will be taking place between March 22 and March 24.

I do wonder if either (or both) of these games are Wii U-related. Capcom recently teased news for the console that would be coming “in the not-so-distant future.”

Below is a listing of Capcom’s PAX East lineup:

Remember Me
Lost Planet 3
Resident Evil: Revelations
Darkstalkers Resurrection
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Capcom Arcade Cabinet
Two new unannounced titles

Source

Assassin’s Creed reveal due on Monday

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag looks like it’ll be the next entry in Ubisoft’s semi-long-running series. Details are mostly being kept secret for now, but a proper announcement is due early next week.

Earlier today, Ubisoft held a press event to showcase the game. According to a tweet from publication MCV, information won’t be available until Monday.

My guess: Ubisoft will make an official announcement on Monday with the first bits of information. Game Informer will have a blowout of Black Flag in its April issue, which will likely be available on Tuesday. The magazine has a tendency to feature Assassin’s Creed games on its April covers.

Sakurai says his arm pains are worse than originally thought, and it’s impacting work on Smash Bros.

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Last month we reported on some unfortunate muscle pains that were plaguing Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai, but this month we have some even worse news: Doctors say the issue is more severe than originally thought, and he’ll have to cease using his right arm almost entirely in the coming weeks. Don’t take my word for it, though, here’s Sakurai himself explaining the issue in a weekly blog he writes for Famitsu:

“I think the one word I’ve said the most this year, by far, is ‘Ow!’. Not only am I getting calcific tendonitis, but they’ve also found what are apparently several ruptures in the muscles. There’s no instant cure for it, so all I can do is either block the pain with injections or put my arm in a cast to keep the ruptures from spreading. I was told that the important thing was to keep my arm as rested as possible.”

“If this disorder lingers, or if it never gets fixed, there’s no telling what impact that would have on the project. I’ve had to control two characters at once in a lot of game projects up to now, so as long as I keep it to simple moves, this works well enough. It doesn’t go that easy with the Nintendo 3DS version, though, and the debug camera is pretty hard to control. Still, now I realize how important it is to have your health. I’m glad I’m still in good enough shape to work.”

– Kirby, Smash Bros. Creator Masahiro Sakurai

Well… at least we know the 3DS version has a debug camera now! Best of luck to Sakurai, and I think I speak for a lot of folk when I say I hope he gets better both for Smash Bros. and for his own sake!

Via Polygon

Square Enix trademarks Deus Ex: Human Defiance

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Square Enix has picked up a new trademark for Deus Ex: Human Defiance. There are likely two possibilities here. Either a brand new Deux game is in the works, or its the title of the rumored Human Revolution port for Wii U. I’m sure we’ll find out what Human Defiance is soon enough.

Source